What a wonderful teacher you are, Kelly, to care so much to ask!  Your kids are blessed!

I believe that kids with CAH are probably the same as any other.  I think that each child brings different things to the table that effects their learning.  CAH kids, I believe, are very observant early on, for example, because they have endless rounds of doctors, blood draws, hospital visits, etc.  Their basic instinct (no matter the intelligence level that was inherited) is the same as any of us but has been honed on what is important to them.  A child who doesn’t have the same issues, might be pretty easygoing because their basic instincts haven’t been focused on seeing where the next pill, doctor,  or needle is coming from.  Others don’t always see the stress on their parents faces when they have to rush to the hospital.  These things aren’t pleasant for anyone involved and these kids appear, to me, to grow up a little faster and their emotions are more complex because of it.  My daughter is like a little adult.  She is 2 and 1/2 and has complete conversations with you that everyone understands, has known all her colors for awhile, can recognize words, etc.  Her comprehension is amazing.  But because we haven’t really taught her those things I believe it is inherited intelligence (must be from her dad’s side or on mine skipped a generation) and a need to know what is going on around her with survival instincts.  It’s like "Street smarts" combined with whatever she got from her parents in the way of IQ.  So she seems smarter, which she is,  but not so much because of IQ.    We have to remind ourselves that they are kids and can grasp some things because of these type of smarts but are totally naive in most others. 

They are moodier, I think, because their hormones are just plain not balanced and can’t fluctuate like yours and mine.  They seem to get frustrated easier, overly emotional about things, and can not focus at times when they have other things on their minds.  Think about the way we all are in that respect and then magnify it. 

You never said the difficulties you are actually having with the child, so I tried to make my opinion statement pretty general.  I used to teach Kindergarten for High Risk Children and my opinions are based on why the kids in my classes seemed  smarter (because their at-home lives were rough) due to honed instincts but they were also more anxious and less focused (school wasn’t a priority - having food for dinner was!).  Their intelligence varied on top of that so, like other children,  they still succeeded at different levels.  So I use that information,  combined with my experiences with my daughter having CAH and saw that they were similar.   

So to put it all together.  I don’t think they are any smarter (other than the girls might do better with math than other girls because of being exposed to more testosterone and it appears to be common knowledge that boys tend to do better in math early on) , I think they are just more complicated emotionally and their thoughts more broad and complex simply because of life experience. 

I am with Danny whole heartedly in that he has always said (not quoting) that you may not control your feelings but control your own behavior.  Just because a child has hormonal imbalances, they have to learn that they may feel differently but their behavior must be kept in check.  Which makes them have to have more self discipline.    These kids must be treated the same and we have to have the same expectations of them as we would any other child.  They live in the same world as we all do and will be held to the same standards as all we all are. 

Hope that made some sense.

RebeccaM